Judges dig into clause on race

On school choice, state intent focus

By Evie Blad

Posted: January 17, 2013 at 12:32 a.m.

A three judge panel hearing arguments about the Arkansas Public School Choice Act inquired Wednesday into what lawmakers intended when they wrote that the state should allow students to attend schools outside their home districts as long as such transfers “would not adversely affect the desegregation of either district.” An attorney for parents who successfully challenged the law in court said lawmakers were adhering to a narrower legal definition of desegregation, referring to districts under federal-court desegregation orders.